The Foreign Languages Department is comprised of two research and teaching offices – one for English language and the other for minor languages. This department is mainly responsible for the training of foreign language majors and providing commonly required courses of minor languages such as Japanese, German, Russian and French at Hefei Campus. The department offers two undergraduate programs: English and Indonesian. At present, the department boasts 32 teachers, including 3 professors. Over 40 percent of the teachers hold senior professional titles or doctoral degrees. The faculty is well-structured, experienced, strong in ability, and able to train students into high-caliber language professionals. In recent years, the teachers and students from the Foreign Language Department have achieved great success in various high-level teaching and student competitions. Particularly, the teachers have made noticeable progress in the fields of linguistics, translatology, literature, cross-cultural and transnational researches. They have been in charge of several national social sciences projects (including key ones), humanities and social sciences projects from the Ministry of Education, and quality engineering projects in Anhui Province. Along with that, they have published high-quality academic papers in journals such as Foreign Language Teaching and Research, Journal of Foreign Languages, Chinese Translation Journal, Contemporary Foreign Literature and South Asian Studies. For a long time, this department has played an important role in cultivating students into qualified professionals and in the development of the discipline in various aspects for the School of Foreign Languages.
The English teaching registers a long history at the university and the faculty has long been dedicated to producing high-quality and inter-disciplinary language professionals who are highly ethical, proficient in English use, knowledgeable in science and engineering and adaptable to various jobs. Therefore, the English teaching of the university has provided intellectual support and professional personnel guarantee for cultural education, economics, trade, finance, industrial manufacturing, information technology and other sectors. In 1977, the university opened an English class to train students into college teachers. In 1988, the university started matriculation of undergraduates, and ever since then, it has witnessed commencement ceremonies in over 30 years. Now the graduated students work all over China and even beyond, winning broad recognition from the society. In 2008, the university was rated excellent by the Ministry of Education for its undergraduate English teaching. In 2000, it was awarded the right to confer masters degrees in English language and literature, and in 2005, masters degrees in Foreign linguistics and applied linguistics. In 2010, it was recognized as a unit with the right to confer masters degrees in the first level disciplines of foreign languages and literature and was awarded the right to confer masters degrees in translation and interpreting (MTI). In 2015, the application of the university for being a unit with the right to confer masters degrees in translation and interpreting passed a special evaluation conducted by the Degree Office of the State Council. Now, the department actively participates in internationalization process by arranging regular exchanges of its teachers and students with its counterparts both at home and abroad. In 2017, HFUT and the University of Westminster in the UK jointly initiated a “2+2” program, aiming at cultivating high-quality language professionals synergically.
To meet the demands of the society for non-common language professionals for the implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative, and to facilitate economic, trade and cultural exchanges between China and Southeast Asian countries, this department established an Indonesian language specialty in 2018 – the first of this kind among all science and engineering universities in China, particularly in Anhui. The faculty of the department has a broad global vision and is rich in teaching and research experience. With the goal to train students into professionals who will be inter-disciplinary knowledgeable and broad job spectrum adaptable, the department focuses on developing basic language skills and intercultural communication abilities. The result shows that this practice is really encouraging for the future. The signing of the agreement for student exchanges with Hassanuddin University in Indonesia has laid a solid foundation for cultivating students into qualified professionals with international perspectives and cross-cultural collaboration abilities. Since the enrollment in 2019, the Indonesian Language program has attracted wide attention from the society. This department successfully hosted a “Sino-Indonesian Cultural Exchange Series”, which garnered great interest and sincere support from university leaders, as well as diplomats, including the education counselor of the Indonesian Embassy in China, and a former consul general of China in Denpasar, Indonesia.